REVIEW: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Name:  The Future of Us

Author(s):  Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date published: 5th January 2012

Number of pages: 356

Source: Gifted

Rating: 5 stars

It’s 1996 and less than half of all high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented for another eight years.


Josh and Emma have been neighbours their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least they were up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When the two friends log on, they discover their profiles on Facebook.

And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Everyone wonders what their destiny will be.
Josh and Emma are about to find out.

The Future of Us revolves around two best friends Josh and Emma who have been really close for most of their lives. However their friendship suffers after Josh misreads their closeness. Six months later, they still maintain a casual friendship and Josh gives her an AOL CD to install on her new computer. And that is when everything begins… they discover their Facebook profiles which show themselves 15 years in the future. Emma is puzzled to begin with while Josh thinks it is a prank. As the book continues, both Emma and Josh try to play around with their futures, will everything end up as they wish or will they stir up a disaster?

As The Future of Us is set in the year that I was born, I was eager to read it especially after reading glowing reviews of it. I really enjoyed this book although there is nothing really climatic in the plot. The story-line is very unique and I was intrigued to see what teenagers back in the 90’s would think of Facebook. The whole concept of Facebook was strange but thrilling for Emma and Josh. It actually made me realise how much of our lives we reveal on it; Facebook has become so normal to me that I never even thought about that! (Please note that I am certainly not the type of person who posts up a status about everything that I am doing!) The layout was fabulous! I loved how the alternating chapters were written by two different authors: Jay Asher wrote Josh’s and Carolyn Mackler wrote Emma’s. What a genius idea! I had initial doubts that their writing style would be different and I’d end up liking one character’s perspective over another. However, there was nothing to worry about! I even forgot that two authors were writing it :)

The personalities of Emma and Josh really shone through and the reader is enabled to get to know each of them and see things from their point of view. The short chapters meant that there was an easy transition between Emma and Josh, allowing the reader to see what they are thinking in the same situation. I thought Emma was quite selfish as she kept trying to tweak her future and she was never happy while Josh was content with what he would have (although to be fair, his future did seem much brighter than Emma’s). The ending was quite predictable but I really enjoyed it nevertheless.

Overall, a very unique, worthwhile book which you should all read! It is certainly thought-provoking and made me realise that something little that we do now can really change and shape our future in a BIG way! And it was really intriguing to find out how teenagers ‘back then’ lived without computers, Facebook and mobile phones etc. Please read it, I’m sure you will love it! It’s perfect for teenagers, young adults and even adults who want to take a walk down memory lane!